Death penalty of 139 soldiers who killed many army officers upheld

Bangladesh Nov 28: A court upheld the death penalty for 139 soldiers on Monday over their role in a "brutal and barbaric" mutiny in which dozens of top army officers were massacred.

In delivering his verdict Justice Md Abu Zafor Siddique described the 2009 slaughter of 74 people as an unprecedented atrocity in Bangladesh's relatively short history.

"It was the most heinous, brutal and barbaric carnage of our history," he told the Dhaka courtroom of the two-day massacre in which victims were shot, hacked to death and burned alive by marauding troops.

The sentences will be appealed again in the Supreme Court, which by law has the final say in all capital punishment cases.